Bringing Australian supercomputing up to speed

Critical infrastructure isn’t just rail and roads – high-performance computing powers our modern way of life. Australia’s ageing supercomputers urgently need investment and a plan.

Time to reboot

High-performance computing in Australia needs an upgrade.

Our existing supercomputers won’t last beyond the end of the decade. We need a plan for the next generation of data infrastructure to power our research, defence and industry. The Academy is calling for a national strategy, backed by at least one exascale capability hosted here, to secure our future prosperity and security. Exascale supercomputing is 1,000 times faster than Australia's current fastest supercomputer and is essential to power industries, science, and our AI and quantum future.

Servers in a supercomputer lit blue in a dim room, with blue Aboriginal style dot artwork

What Australia needs: A 10-year plan

High-performance computing and data (HPCD) is the cornerstone of global competitiveness in the 21st century. Australia needs a national long-term strategy and targeted investment to avoid falling behind.

Explore the Academy's proposal

A graphic of the outline of Australia lits up in blue against a dark background, with foreground network connections

Why investment in supercomputing should matter to every Australian

Supercomputers play a vital role in all our lives – from disaster response and personalised healthcare to clean energy and national security.

Read the case studies

The Academy's advocacy

For three years, the Academy has been leading discussions across the sector on the issue of HPCD and infrastructure issues. Over successive federal Budgets, we have called for a long-term roadmap and investment to build HPCD capability.

Read our latest Budget submission

Rows of servers making up a supercomputer with orange and yellow artwork and the word 'Setonix' along the side

The future computing needs of the science sector

The challenges facing Australia and the world are increasingly complex – and require more computational power to solve. Exascale supercomputing, 1,000 times faster than Australia’s fastest supercomputer, can perform at least one quintillion calculations per second.

Find out about future capabilities